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Here's how you pick dental insurance: it doesn't matter much because it isn't insurance at all. It's just a maintenance plan. The purpose of insurance is to b

Here's how you pick dental insurance: it doesn't matter much because it isn't insurance at all. It's just a maintenance plan. The purpose of insurance is to buffer you against sudden large costs by having the insurance pay them while collecting enough of a premium from everyone that they come out ahead. The purpose of a dental plan is to pay for typical costs and completely bail on you if your costs go over a fixed amount per year (typically $1000-$3000). Look closely: every dental plan you are being offered likely has an annual maximum benefit per year of somewhere in this range ($1500 is common). I've had the insurance company cheerily say "yes, that procedure that costs $54000 is covered at 100%! ... up to your annual maximum, which is $1500. You will be responsible for the rest."

antisthenes 5y ago
The way you pick dental insurance in the USA: Pick the air carrier with the cheapest flight to Mexico.
nickjj 5y ago
Yeah it's very limited in general. You can't even get certain standard types of cleanings with 100% coverage because it's not a supported dental code. It would be way more efficient for employers not to offer dental insurance and instead give employees a tax-free $1,000 yearly stipend which allows employees to use this for personal and family dental care as an expense report which in turn ends up being a business write off for the employer. Now there's no limitations on what work can get done and no wasting your life trying to chase down dental / FSA details. A higher end dental insurance plan through a company is over $1,000 a year too, so this stipend approach would save employers money and it saves employees a lot of money too because you could easily end up paying $600-700 post-tax money out of pocket for standard cleanings a few times a year when insurance won't cover them (even if that insurance costs $1,000 a year). It's a win / win scenario for both the employer and employee.

antisthenes 5y ago

The way you pick dental insurance in the USA: Pick the air carrier with the cheapest flight to Mexico.

nickjj 5y ago

Yeah it's very limited in general. You can't even get certain standard types of cleanings with 100% coverage because it's not a supported dental code. It would be way more efficient for employers not to offer dental insurance and instead give employees a tax-free $1,000 yearly stipend which allows employees to use this for personal and family dental care as an expense report which in turn ends up being a business write off for the employer. Now there's no limitations on what work can get done and no wasting your life trying to chase down dental / FSA details. A higher end dental insurance plan through a company is over $1,000 a year too, so this stipend approach would save employers money and it saves employees a lot of money too because you could easily end up paying $600-700 post-tax money out of pocket for standard cleanings a few times a year when insurance won't cover them (even if that insurance costs $1,000 a year). It's a win / win scenario for both the employer and employee.